Collection of food and drink cartons at the kerbside
Guidance for local authorities and waste contractors
Project code: RCY-125-002
Research date: March – July 2017
Date: October 2017
MR40 – Version 17 WRAP - Collection of food and drink cartons at the kerbside Page 4
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Written by: Sally Scholefield, Will French and Ed Cook
Front cover photography: Ed Cook
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MR40 – Version 17 WRAP - Collection of food and drink cartons at the kerbside Page 4
Introduction
Food and drink cartons are collected at the kerbside by two-thirds of local authorities in the UK. They make up 0.2% of the municipal waste stream and have a historically low value in secondary markets.
This guide is aimed at local authority policy-makers, waste operations managers and those interested in collecting food and drink cartons from households for recycling. Its purpose is to provide information on the economic, operational, environmental and policy aspects of kerbside carton collections so that officers can make informed decisions on the best way to handle and market this material for effective recycling.
This guidance has been developed by WRAP as part of its Framework for Greater Consistency in Household Recycling in England[1] which includes cartons as one of the eight materials to be collected by local authorities.
Advice is based on observations of local authorities with existing carton collection and sorting systems as well as interviews carried out with local authorities and other waste carton stakeholders.
Further information about carton recycling can be found via The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK.
Contents
1.0 Context 5
2.0 Types of carton 5
2.1 Chilled 5
2.2 Aseptic 5
3.0 Cartons reprocessing 6
4.0 How many cartons to expect 7
5.0 Markets 7
5.1 Domestic 7
5.2 Exports 8
6.0 Collection and sorting options 9
6.1 Separately collected in a dedicated compartment 10
6.2 Mixing with other containers 10
6.3 Comingled with containers, fibre and other materials 11
6.4 Mixing with cardboard/fibre grades 11
7.0 Headline cost benefit 13
7.1 Scenarios 13
7.2 Summary of scenarios 14
7.3 Reprocessors 14
8.0 Storage & transport 16
8.1 Loose cartons 16
8.2 Storage of bales 16
8.3 Transport 17
9.0 Communicating the service to residents 18
Appendix A. Assumptions for collections cost model 20
Appendix B. Analysis of different collection methods for food and drink cartons 21
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the authority officers and contractors who took part in interviews, and allowed us to study and photograph their operations and in particular: Bryson Recycling, Torfaen CBC; South Gloucestershire Council; SUEZ; Conwy CBC; South Cambridgeshire District Council; Amey; Confederation of Paper Industries; DS Smith; Saica Natur; Nigel Homer for the Environment Agency.
Thanks also go to ACE UK and Sonoco for their help with this guide.
1.0 Context
Historically, local authorities have focussed their efforts on collecting recyclates that are plentiful, heavy or have a high value. Following increasingly successful capture rates for many of these materials, officers are moving their attention to other materials to help achieve recycling targets and in response to requests from residents.
In a survey carried out to produce this guide around 50% of authorities who responded collected food and drink cartons due to demands from householders.
The carton industry[2] is also keen to see their packaging recycled and advocates for better facilities and increased collection through the trade association, The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK.
Historically, facilities for collecting cartons for recycling have been scant. From 2007, bring banks started to appear in a large number of local authority areas around the UK, the majority of them being funded by ACE UK via investment from the beverage carton industry.
More recently these have been complemented by, and in many cases replaced by, the collection of cartons at kerbside, which is now carried out in around 65% of local authority areas across the UK.
2.0 Types of carton
Cartons are designed to keep the contents fresh by protecting the product from deterioration by oxygen, sunlight, odour and bacteria. The square shape of cartons also lends itself to the efficient storage and transport of food and drinks, as the shape enables efficient use of space.
There are two broad types: chilled, which make up about a third of the cartons placed on the market, and aseptic (also called long life or ambient) which make up the other two-thirds.
2.1 Chilled
Cartons that are used to contain chilled produce, have a polyethylene (PE) layer on the inside and outside which is bonded to the fibre. Average composition of 85% fibre and 15% PE.
2.2 Aseptic
Aseptic cartons, used to contain long-life products, also have a very thin layer of aluminium foil on the inside of the carton. The aluminium layer prevents oxygen from entering the carton as this causes the product to deteriorate. Composition is approximately 75% fibre, 20% PE and 5% aluminium (by weight).
Figure 1: Structure of chilled carton / Figure 2: Structure of long-life carton3.0 Cartons reprocessing
The PE and aluminium layers in cartons are designed to prevent liquid from accessing the fibre layer of the packaging, this means that they require a longer pulping time than unlaminated paper and additional screening equipment to remove the non-fibre materials from the pulp.
To separate the plastic (including lids) and aluminium from the fibre, the cartons need to be stirred with water in a batch pulper for about 20 minutes (Figure 3). Once the fibres have been broken down and pulped, the mixture is flushed with water to clean off the laminating materials; leaving the fibre separate from the combined PE/aluminium.
Figure 3: Cartons being processed inside the batch pulper at Sonoco/ACE UK facility near HalifaxFigure 4: Tubes and cores produced by Sonoco / Figure 5: Aluminium ‘flake’ and pelletised plastic separated from the PE/aluminium fraction of recovered cartons
There are strong and well-established markets for the long fibres present in cartons, for example as cores for reels of paper as shown in Figure 4. However, the PE/aluminium fraction is more challenging as markets are still developing. Some innovative processes exist in China which produce outputs (Figure 5) suitable for use in building materials, foam, concrete, garden furniture and play mats.
Whilst older paper mills may still use batch pulpers which can process laminated paper such as cartons, most modern plants use a continuous process which lasts about eight minutes. It is for this reason that cartons included in other fibre grades may not be recycled and have to be screened out of the process in the pulper, representing a cost in terms of logistics, removal and waste disposal.
Some cartons may be screened before they enter the pulper via a positive manual pick but it is understood that in the UK the majority are screened directly from the pulper. In both cases, the screened materials are either landfilled or sent for energy recovery (sometimes on-site) which will elicit some value from the material; however this does not constitute recycling.
4.0 How many cartons to expect
Cartons represent approximately 0.2% of the municipal waste stream (around 60,000 TPA in the UK) and although capture rates are not known for England, the data from a recent compositional analysis study in Wales indicated that their national kerbside capture rate was approximately 48%[3] .
Table 1 provides an indication of the weight of cartons that might be collected by authorities of different sizes and with different capture rates.
Table 1: Typical weight of cartons collected for different sized authorities and capture rates, (tonnes)
Authority size (households) / 25% capture rate / 50% capture rate / 75% capture rateMonth / Year / Month / Year / Month / Year
30,000 / 1.3 / 15.8 / 2.6 / 31.7 / 4.0 / 47.5
50,000 / 2.2 / 26.4 / 4.4 / 52.8 / 6.6 / 79.1
100,000 / 4.4 / 52.8 / 8.8 / 105.5 / 13.2 / 158.3
200,000 / 8.8 / 105.5 / 17.6 / 211.0 / 26.4 / 316.5
Assumptions: UK average waste generation of 1,055 kg per household per year (2.11 kg cartons per hh/yr); amounts will vary considerably according to demographics.
5.0 Markets
5.1 Domestic
There is currently just one facility in the UK (Sonoco/ACE UK near Halifax) that is specifically designed to process post-consumer cartons for recycling.
Prior to the construction of ACE UK’s plant in 2013, cartons were exported to continental Europe for recycling where they make up a greater proportion of the waste stream. Historically prices ranged from £0 - £20 tonne (delivered). More recently the carton industry has provided a subsidy for producers that use ACE UK/Sonoco’s Halifax facility resulting in revenue of £55/tonne (delivered). The profitability in the context of transport costs is discussed further in Section 8.3.
A potential issue that arises from including cartons with fibre grades is that they have been previously used to contain food and beverages. Although not directly stated, the Confederation of Paper Industries[4] alludes to the recommendation that paper which has been previously contaminated with foodstuffs should not be intentionally mixed with other fibre that is to be used in food containers. As this applies to all cartons, the intentional mixing of cartons with fibre grades could be considered a breach of these standards, thus affecting value of materials.
Another practice that is carried out by some operators has been the deliberate blending of cartons with fibre grades following separate collection of each. The Environment Agency has stated that it would be against this activity as it is a breach of Article 10 of the Waste Framework Directive[5].
5.2 Exports
Exporting cartons mixed with fibre grades is permitted under the Basel Convention and they are not considered an out throw per se. However, contrary to the international agreements, countries such as China have implemented their own controls to prevent waste being dumped on them. At the time of writing, the Chinese authorities have announced the ‘National Sword’ campaign to tighten up enforcement of import regulations to prevent foreign exporters from dumping unwanted waste.
Chinese National Standards[6] infer but don’t specifically describe cartons as an out throw; rather they set a maximum threshold of 1.5% for ‘waxed paper, waxed dipped paper ….. etc.’ Discussion with UK regulators during the production of this guide highlighted the lack of clarity from the Chinese authorities over the acceptability for import either mixed with other fibres or as a single stream.
If cartons are to be considered an out throw, then, depending on the capture rate and the amount of card being collected by a local authority, mixing with card deliberately could potentially result in this threshold being breached (Figure 6[7]).
According to ACE Europe, there are 20 plants across Europe actively recycling food and drink cartons. Since there are currently no restrictions within the EU on the movement of waste cartons these plants could offer potential markets for separated cartons from the UK.
6.0 Collection and sorting options
WRAP’s framework for greater consistency in recycling sets out three systems for collections, each of which include the collection of cartons[8]. A wide range of approaches for kerbside collection of cartons exist across the UK (see Appendix B for detail on how they are applicable to each of the three collection systems outlined in the framework). For simplicity, these have been grouped into four categories according to the handling and sorting activities that are required for the type of mixing involved:
1. Separately collected in a dedicated compartment;
2. Mixed with other containers;
3. Partially or fully comingled (i.e. including containers and other non-container materials);
4. Mixed with cardboard/fibre grades.
The following sections describe each of the four scenarios which are mapped in the material flow in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Material flow of cartons collected at the kerbside using different collection, sorting and marketing methods
6.1 Separately collected in a dedicated compartment
The principal benefit to collecting separately at the kerbside in a dedicated compartment is that the material will be of a very high quality and require no further sorting.
However separate collection increases collection time. It’s hard to definitively say how much extra time this would take, but modelling[9] carried out during the production of this guide indicates that collecting via this method could typically add around 8-minutes to the average round[10].
The issue of storage on the vehicle is also important. Un-compacted cartons occupy approximately 26 kg/m3 on a kerbside sort vehicle. A typical round capturing 3.5 tonnes of recyclate with a 50% capture rate could expect to collect around 30 kg – meaning a compartment of approximately 1m3 would be needed.